

»«••**.-: -**- -*X 




ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



BEFORE II IK 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 

CT>f the QTitn of Xcw-IDork, 

AT THE 

TABERNACLE, 

October 28th, 1856, 

DURING THE 

®u)cnt}3-^tglltl) Annual jFair, 

15 V 

PROF. A. D. BACHE, 
Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Sukvev. 



N E W- Y O R K 




PUDNEY & RUSSELL, PRINTERS, 
N* o . 7 9 John-Street. 

1857. 







& 



ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 

<©f tlje <£it2 of Nero-fork, 

AT THB 

TABERNACLE, 

October 28th, 1856, 

DURING THE 

$ruentB~(!Hgl)if) Annual iTair, 



PROF. AV b. BACHE, 



Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey. 



N E W - Y O R K 



PUDNEY & RUSSELL, PRINTERS, 

No. 7 9 John-Street. 

1857. 



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ADDRESS 



Me. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen : — 

If mind produces material improvement, this reacts 
equally upon mental progress. Society as it exists comes, 
humanly speaking, out of these actions and reactions. 
The state of society in our country at this day is modi- 
fied by communication by telegraph ; by easy personal 
communication by steam ; by facilities for transportation 
by steam, and wind, and life, which determine the condi- 
tions of commerce and navigation, — commerce internal and 
external. For all practical purposes of communication 
between man and man, the large area of our country is 
but as one of the former States of our Confederation. 
The Postmaster- General of the Confederation travelling on 
his way from Boston to Philadelphia, and making it a 
point to stop at the good inn of Tower Hill, Rhode Isl- 
and, on his ten days' journey, is typical of that day of 
small and slow things. He, of the United States, is carried 
through the same country by the railway, avoiding " Tower 
Hill," and making no pauses in his way by land and wa- 



ter in a journey of sixteen hours ; or, if he prefer land, in 
twelve hours of travel. Days have thus nearly shrunk into 
hours. Five days and a half carry one to the far West, near 
the limits of our interior civilization, reached with months 
of toil by Lewis and Clark, and by Pike and Long, not fifty 
years ago. The improvement in dwellings, in dress, in food ; 
the appliances for comfort, for luxury, for knowledge — how 
great. Compare the Fifth Avenue palace, with its comforts 
of gas, and warm air, and water ; its splendid exterior and 
interior ; its spacious parlors, and chambers, and offices ; 
its inlaid floors, its polished doors, its stained or plate glass 
windows, and their gorgeous curtains ; its frescoed ceilings 
and walls. Compare these with the front of chequered 
black and red brick of sixty years ago, the contracted par- 
lor, and the small, illy-ventilated chamber, the "watery dip" 
candle, and the wide open fire-place, the rough floors coarsely 
carpeted, the small doors painted ; the windows with nine 
by six glass, full of veins and streaks, and distorting every- 
thing seen through them ; the prim blinds, white-washed 
ceiling, and clumsily papered walls stained with paste. Life 
in these dwellings must have its features as characteristic 
as the dwellings themselves. The arts and sciences thus 
mould society. Mind is indebted to them for its facility 
of acting upon mind, and literature pays its tribute, which 
it returns with interest to the arts. 

Through all these changes in the face of society, it would 
be curious to follow, if we could, the thread which runs 
through the same families, the same portions of a country, 
the same races of men. The omniscient eye takes all this 
in at a glance, and sees how peculiar traits descend from 






father to child, and are modified as they pass ; how par- 
ticular characteristics stick to the same localities ; how they 
typify particular races of men. How the descendants of 
those who resisted tyrants in the olden times are friends of 
popular rights to-day ; how those of the hold warrior of 
former ages now make the enterprising navigator or mer- 
chant. How the Cavaliers and Round-heads of the past 
re-appear in the gayeties and gravities of modern times. 
How those races who persecuted, for opinion's sake, with 
sword and stake, now T persecute with tongue and pen. New 
conditions are enforced by public opinion ; but the world 
is not all free to-day, even in countries of free governments. 

Masses of men have their aggregate character, and, as 
climate is inferred from means of varying temperatures, 
so may an average typify men in the aggregate. As we 
may describe climate by its extremes, or by striking pecu- 
liarities, or by average indications — so men. 

The wants of society express themselves in the institu- 
tions which society creates, though those wants may exist 
long before they are supplied. Christianity was a necessary 
preparation for the establishments of public charities, the 
asylums for the destitute and the unfortunate, the halt, the 
maimed, and the blind, though this want existed before the 
Grospel was preached to the poor. 

It may not employ us unprofitably during the brief time 
allotted to this address, to consider some of the institutions 
connected with the wants of our country and of our day ; and 
especially at the close of the Annual Fair for the exhibi- 



tion of products of the arts and manufactures, to examine 
some of those devoted to the progress of the arts and 
sciences. 

In this discussion I must necessarily limit myself to those 
establishments which are generic. After noticing the classes 
of institutions which are devoted to the education of youth, 
I shall pass to those for adult education or improvement, and 
for the improvement of the arts and sciences themselves, 
such as the American Institute, and the Franklin Institute 
of Philadelphia, as the types of this class of mechanical 
institutions, and shall notice the modes adopted by them for 
progress. The wants which they represent are, mutual 
improvement by the members, and advancement in the arts 
and sciences. Next, commerce will claim our attention, and 
the doings of the Chamber of Commerce of New-York will 
serve us as text. The great library of the merchant prince, 
John Jacob Astor, and the Union of that most excellent of 
men, Peter Cooper, will also be noticed. From these efforts 
already made, I shall pass to the examination of what I 
consider the great want of the day, yet unsatisfied — a Uni- 
versity of the Arts and Sciences. 

You may consider this address as a nook, or a very small 
corner of the Crystal Palace Exhibition. These institutions 
are so many frames upon which I intend to hang the objects 
to be exhibited to you. The frames themselves, like those 
of the great glass house, shall be put together according to 
general mechanical principles, and the articles shall be so 
arranged as not to strike you as " confusion worse confound- 
ed ;" but the smaller ones, and the pegs on which they hang, 



may be stuck about in some little disorder, and even some 
of the wares may be pinned on loosely, for the hours of prep- 
aration have been few and short. 

In the United States almost everything is done on the 
voluntary plan. It has produced splendid results, but re- 
sults wanting, of course, in system. When new Berlin was 
built, whole streets of buildings upon the same general plan 
arose, and the palace was set off by the plainer dwelling, 
the effects of massive uniformity and the more pleasing ones 
of variety being all studied according to a general design. 
The materials of the individual buildings were not of a 
costly sort. With us brown stone, granite, and marble, and 
costly pressed bricks, and highly ornamented iron, are gath- 
ered together, and, without order or method, each one builds 
one, two or more structures as he lists, and the effect of the 
whole is poor, and even sometimes repulsive. Many of our 
separate institutions are admirable in their way, but what 
a heterogeneous mass they form. Each of them expresses 
a want of the community, for unless they are wanted they die 
out — but there is no more method in them than in the group- 
ing of the Broadway houses. I know that it is supposed 
by some that, as a crowd in which each one attends to his 
own business is for many purposes of society as effective 
as one directed by police officers, so these self-directed insti- 
tutions, separately organized, may be as good as a systematic 
arrangement of establishments. No one, however, who re- 
flects deeply upon this proposition, divested of the figure, 
will, I think, come to such a conclusion. Figures are some- 
times admirable as illustrations, but they are not argu- 
ments. 



8 



I was present at a keen encounter of wits between an 
officer connected with one of the Executive Departments 
of the Government, who had prepared a report which was 
to be printed, and a gentleman connected with the public 
printing. The officer who had prepared the report desired 
to superintend its printing. The other desired that it should 
take its place with other matter for public printing. Why, 
said the latter, it is like the contrast between carrying on 
a wholesale and retail business — it stands to reason that the 
wholesale w T ay is cheapest, and from the division of labor 
the best. I regard it, rather (said the other) as like the 
difference between rearing a child born to one, under the 
parent's eye, in the family, until he is prepared for the world, 
and the handing him over to an asylum to be dealt with as 
one of many bantlings, and so be introduced into society. 
Now the report was neither a piece of cotton nor linen, nor 
a bantling of flesh and blood and mind. The figures could 
both be pictured, and therefore, according to Blair, were good 
figures — but neither of them proved anything. 

Let us, now, for awhile, study some of the prominent 
institutions of education and improvement in science and 
the arts, and consider the wants of which they are the ex- 
ponents. 

SCHOOLS, ACADEMIES, COLLEGES. 

At the basis of the whole, — sunk deep in the national 
soil, — below, as I doubt not, the reach of every frost, — 
are the Common Schools, common to all as a rule. Ne- 
glected in some parts of our country, and worthy of the 



other sense of the word common, but generally appreciated, 
and, having employed some of the best minds in their or- 
ganization and advancement — I feel a profound conviction 
that no substitute for these schools, adapted to the wants 
of society in the United States, can be found, and that 
they should be fostered and improved until they supersede 
all other establishments of their grade. Neither private 
education, nor that by associations, either religious or chari- 
table, can take the place of general public education. 
Where the public schools are not as good as the private 
ones, these institutions have not supplied the want of 
which they are the index, and require further develop- 
ment. The public schools should be the best schools — the 
training in them the most thorough that can be had any- 
where. 

Above these schools, adapted to a different age, comes 
the Academy, or High School, or College. Over a large 
portion of the country, these institutions, representing the 
want of a culture of a higher grade, and addressed to a 
more advanced age than the Common Schools, have no 
connection with the former. In some parts, I fear, there 
is almost antagonism in their positions. "When this is so, 
will not the good and patriotic seek to devise a remedy 
for so unhappy a state of things ? As the rivers are fed 
by the streams from the mountain-side, or the hill-side, 
or the gently sloping plain, collecting the drainage of the 
whole land, so should these institutions be fed by pupils 
from all the Common Schools. Where this has been effect- 
ively realized, as in this city, in Philadelphia, and, in a 
great degree, in Boston, the result has been of the best 



10 



character — best for the public schools, which are vivified 
by the Free Academy, or the High School — and best for 
the youth of these cities. That a connection of other 
existing institutions, of the same grade, with this great 
public system, would be a benefit to them and to it, I 
feel entirely convinced : and one day this truth will be 
recognized. I had hoped its earlier recognition. 

It is actually a conservative principle in society, or- 
ganized like ours, to let men do, as far as possible, as 
they desire in a right career ; waiting for the develop- 
ment of public opinion to change public action. Im- 
patience produces volcanic outbursts which shake institu- 
tions and society, disturbing individual and aggregate re- 
lations. "When society is organized upon the actual and 
avowed basis that any man may wield the degree of 
influence and power to which his qualities entitle him, 
it is conservative to afford to every one the easiest route 
to his position. Obstacles only irritate, and repression 
renders talent dangerous. 

It seems, in looking over these institutions of learning 
adapted to the young, that even in their present condi- 
tion, and especially with the means of improvement which 
they contain within themselves, and with the pressure of 
public opinion upon them, they really furnish the greatest 
part of the facilities required for the education of youth. 
Their shortcomings, if any, are not lightly to be blamed. 
Their improvement has been very great within the last 
thirty years, measured by the standard of each institution, 
by their condition with respect to each other, by the 



11 



general condition of education. This is true, I know, in 
regard to scientific culture, the only portion in reference 
to which I undertake to judge ; to mathematics and 
physics, as far as they have place in a college course. 
The influences which have produced this, it is not my 
design to attempt to trace ; but I must be allowed to say, 
in passing, that our National School at West Point has, 
by thorough training of its graduates in a course of exact 
science, caused a reaction upon the Colleges quite as 
useful in its results, as the direct influence of the institu- 
tion in its more limited sphere. It has also, by its action 
on the popular will, raised up for itself a competitor in 
the Naval Academy, which will, in time, vie with the 
elder institution in its good work. 

The youth of our country, in their impatience for 
entering life, have, no doubt, diminished too much the 
period of preparation for it by study, and their parents 
have, in a degree, conspired with them in their demands 
for railroad speed in the College course, diminishing, espe- 
cially in certain portions of the country, the age of ma- 
triculation and graduation, and therefore necessarily lower- 
ing the grade of Collegiate instruction. But, after all, 
there has been great improvement in these institutions 
Minds of high grade, thoroughly trained, are connected 
with them, and earnest zeal and exalted talent are de- 
voted to their improvement. Our Colleges have done well 
in the past, they will do better in the future. 

In this country our ambition led us at an early day 
to endeavor to imitate or even rival the Old World insti- 



12 



tutions, and before the way was fairly open by education, 
we proceeded to the establishment of Colleges and Uni- 
versities. We thus followed the examples of the philoso- 
phers of Laputa, who, according to Dean Swift, began 
the erection of their houses at the roof. The Colleges, 
however, it must be admitted, helped to invigorate the 
schools below them. 

The organization of Universities in the early colonial 
days was like the construction of those enormous hotels in 
the West, rivalling the St. Nicholas and Metropolitan of 
Broadway, while the land was scarcely cleared. But Chi- 
cago has grown up to its hotel, and others are required upon 
even a larger scale. And the country has grown up to its 
-early organization and has passed it. Good Bishop White, 
of Pennsylvania, used to relate with great pleasure the 
meetings of the Trustees of the College of Philadelphia 
by the bedside of the venerable Franklin, and the quaint 
ways which he took to convince them that they wanted 
an Academy where the English branches should be fore- 
most, and not a College for classical instruction. He 
traced in turn the theory of different parts of wearing ap- 
parel, how the rim of the hat, now in its narrowness, a 
useless appendage, had once been the visor of the helmet ; 
— the cuff of the coat, the band of the gauntlet. Now we 
have, in a great degree, ceased to discuss such matters. 
We want all sorts of knowledge which can train the intel- 
lect, the more the better, and the craving grows with 
what it feeds on instead of becoming sated. We have 
classes of persons who are desirous of entering life fully 
armed by all the learning for the struggle, and large 



13 



classes who, having entered life, are anxious to grow in 
mind as they advance in age, and who seek the out- 
lets of knowledge with persevering spirit. How many 
institutions owe their origin to this spirit ! Does it not 
pervade the one in connection with which we are now 
assembled ? Witness its lectures, its publications, its ex- 
hibitions. 

UNIVERSITIES. 

Coming, then, from the period of youthful training, we 
enter the University, that great finishing institution for 
life. Where is our American University? "We find schools 
of law, of medicine, of theology, scattered over the United 
States, — do not these constitute in fact, if not in name, a 
great University ? Because scattered, do they lose their 
character ? Would they acquire it merely by their union ? 
Would not attaching, as in the Grerman organization, to 
combined schools of law, medicine, and theology, a faculty 
of philosophy, thus constitute each and every one a Uni- 
versity ? All these questions are worth discussing. But 
this is not the time nor the place to do so, nor is it 
necessary to my present purpose. If I intended to throw 
stones (which I do not) it would not be at this, the close 
of an exhibition held in a glass house, that I would do it. 
These schools express the several wants of the time and 
country for special professional education, and fulfil, in 
a greater or less degree, their mission. The professions 
will see that they advance. 



14 



MECHANICS' INSTITUTES. 

In Philadelphia, some thirty-five years ago, a few me- 
chanics met to consult upon an institution for mutual 
improvement. A similar movement had been commenced 
by other parties, and from their united efforts sprang the 
Franklin Institute of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of 
the Mechanic Arts, of which James Ronaldson, the Phil- 
adelphia Type Founder, was the first President. 

In 1791 a few patriotic men, such as R. R. Livingston, 
Mitchell, Kent, Dewitt, Jay, and others, founded in New- 
York a society for the advancement of agriculture, arts, 
and manufactures. This was in operation for but ten 
years, and at the close of its incorporation expired. 

The American Institute originated twenty-eight years 
ago, in the far-sighted efforts of a few individuals, among 
the most active of whom were the late Secretary, Thad- 
deus B. Wakeman, and the present Secretary, Hon. 
Henry Meigs, and many of the founders have lived to 
see their bantling grown to manhood. The officers, com- 
mittees, and clubs of the institution are ever active in 
the affairs of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and 
the arts, to promote which they were incorporated. The 
annual volume of transactions, published with commend- 
able liberality by the State of New- York, contains, be- 
sides the report of the progress of the institution itself, 
those of the judges of the Fair, of the committees of Arts 
and Sciences, addresses, and useful papers on subjects 
within the wide scope of the Institute. 



15 



The members are, to use nearly the language of the 
venerable Secretary, the kind of men' by which republics 
can be made and maintained — making and maintaining 
themselves, they always have surplus power to maintain 
the State. 

The wants here represented were intellectual improve- 
ment of the cultivators of the mechanic arts, and im- 
provement of the arts themselves. 

The Franklin Institute was, in part, for the education 
of youth and adults, in part, for the advancement of the 
arts. Regular courses of lectures on Natural Philosophy and 
Chemistry, and their application to the arts, mining and 
metallurgy, geology, and occasional courses in various 
branches of science and art; schools for mathematics, for 
architectural, mechanical, and miscellaneous drawing ful- 
filled the first object. The second was reached by means 
of exhibitions. The first exhibition of the Franklin Insti- 
tute was held in the Carpenter's Hall in 1827, the last 
overflowed the largest building which the city of Phila- 
delphia could furnish to it. 

CRYSTAL PALACE. 

The first New-York exhibition under the auspices 
of the American Institute was held in 18 8, in the con- 
tracted space of the Masonic Hall ; that of 1856 occupies 
the building of the World's Fair of 1853. 

The idea of filling the Crystal Palace with articles of 
domestic manufacture, would two years ago have seemed, 



16 



perhaps it did seem when first suggested, almost prepos- 
terous. When we recollect that fears were entertained, 
whether the products of the Industry of all Nations would 
be sent in sufficient quantity to fill those vast floors, 
we can appreciate the boldness of the idea which would 
seek such an area for the display of American fabrics. 
And yet this space is by no means a void. "Where else 
could the ample proportions of those steam engines find 
their appropriate place ? or those products of the boat- 
builder's skill, or those exquisite fabrics from Law- 
rence, or those useful ones from Manchester? Where 
else could those planing machines and turning lathes, 
those atmospheric hammers, those machines for pumping 
and draining, for transmitting power, for splitting wood, 
for dressing stone, for warming, ventilating, cooking ; in 
short, for all the varied purposes of the arts and of life 
— be exhibited and in action, with room and verge enough 
to pass^ around and between, to admire and to examine ? 
Then, where else could the marriage of the mechanic arts 
and the fine arts (that happy thought) have found space 
for its celebration, but here ! 

Modern machines seem not only instinct with life, but 
to have thought — so perfectly do they supply those move- 
ments which, directed by law, are usually the results of 
thought and will. In the old printing press, ink was ap- 
plied to the types by hand by huge stuffed leather balls; 
the paper was cut to its size and placed upon the press 
by hand, and by hand folded down upon the types — 
other hands passed the whole under a screw or toggle- 
joint, which, by an independent exercise of will, was 



17 



brought down upon the types ; the paper was then released, 
removed and folded: — several hands directed by thought were 
thus at work. Now, the paper is cut from the roll, and in 
some cases is actually manufactured from the rags, and 
presents itself to be cut, the types are inked, the impres- 
sions made, all by mechanical power, one man controlling 
the whole; and in the machine, fingers remove the printed 
paper from the press and fold it — they seem absolutely 
to be thought directed. I saw a small specimen of 
11 Young America " watching, puzzled, this most ingenious 
operation. It must think, (his face seemed to say !) 
At last, the roll of paper giving out, the fingers came 
forth to seize nothing, and the lad laughed aloud at their 
stupid clutching at vacancy. He had, at last, caught 
the idea of this thinking machine ! 

Modern civilization rendered such a structure as the 
Crystal Palace practicable. It was, as has been justly 
remarked of the great London prototype, as much a 
piece of mechanism as any machine within it — its parts 
separately wrought out from model and drawing, and put 
together with system, plan and order. The chief mate- 
rial, glass, was but little known to the ancients, and less 
used ; and the idea of constructing a palace of such a fra- 
gile material comes only in a time of peace, of law and 
order, and of civilization. The moral effect of such a 
structure is not to be lost sight of. 

Noticing the progress of public opinion in regard to the 
preservation of public objects of art and nature, Mr. Bab- 
bage, speaking of the introduction of water-fowl into the 
parks of London, says: — 

2 



18 



" In former days if there had been water-fowl in our parks, some 
such notice as this would have been placarded: — ' Whoever throws 
stones at or frightens these birds, shall be prosecuted with the ut- 
most severity of the law.' In the present day we read the much 
more effective address—' These birds are recommended to the pro- 
tection of the public' The advantage of action upon this principle 
is not confined merely to its direct efficacy for its purpose. A still 
more important benefit remains latent — one which never ought to be 
lost sight of in the administration of laws. It enlists public opinion 
in favor of law and order." 



Prior to 1837, the British Museum was open to admis- 
sion only by tickets ; and it was contended, that to open 
it to indiscriminate entry, would expose the collections to 
injury and loss. The experiment was tried of throwing it 
completely open during the Easter holidays ; when it was 
thronged to inconvenience ; and yet nothing was taken, and 
only a pane of glass accidentally broken by the crush in 
the narrow part of a passage. 

Not the least wondrous of the sights of this American 
Crystal Palace, are the moving groups which throng its 
long-drawn aisles. Not, as in the Wall-street part of Broad- 
way, where carking care shows on every face, and the fixed 
look, the wrinkled brow, the impatient gesture, indicate that 
care goads the passenger as he drives along ; but where the 
faces are lit up with inquisitiveness, with the genial flow of 
gratified curiosity, or the grave but satisfied air of examina- 
tion and investigation. See that school, headed by the sym- 
pathizing teachers, asking, hearing, moving, here and there 
in files, in knots, in little groups, in large fronted columns ! 
See how the girls and boys display the different tempera- 



19 



ments and trainings of the sexes ! See the different objects 
which attract their gaze and elicit interest ! "What a beau- 
tiful effect, those graceful forms and brilliant dresses sprink- 
ling the floor and mixing with the sober gloom of the iron 
machinery, and how those graver costumes contrast with the 
bright hues of the dahlias and brilliant exotics ! 

A few in lightness, easily forgiven — a few in talk of things 
not of the exhibition, perhaps of mechanics, not of machines. 
These are the exceptions to the groups, and are balanced 
by those solemn faces which discuss apart to the very mi- 
nutest detail, that new invention, and by those busy men 
who are dilating on the merits of the machines which have 
cost them nights of sleeplessness and days of toil. May 
the world appreciate their labors, and reward them with 
better things than that "hope deferred which maketh the 
heart sick." 

What if these breasts were made of glass ? — not rough- 
ened like that of our Palace to keep Ihe outsider from look- 
ing in, but good transparent crystal. Then, our illusion 
would vanish, and the inside show come back to the Broad- 
way type. Let us' rather use the scene as not abusing it ; 
admit the light of day, but give no transparency. Let 
us enjoy our Crystal Palace illusion while it lasts. Let 
us believe that, in this house, at least, there is no skel- 
eton. 

I have often wondered that more care was not taken 
amongst us to preserve the statistics of different enterprises, 
with a view to know their actual results, and trace them 



20 



to their causes ; and, further, with a view to their practical 
utility. If a railroad is organized in a city, for example, 
the statistics of the number of passengers at different times 
in the day, on different days, on different occasions, should 
be carefully collected and mapped in curves so as to show 
the results to the eye. It would then be seen how the 
wants of the public could be best supplied ; how many cars 
were wanted each hour of the day, each day in the week, 
when the Crystal Palace was open ; and, generally, on what 
occasions when open. A study of this enterprise would 
lead to rational results as to the need of others, and the 
study of them in connection would show their mutual in- 
fluence. What is now left to the " rule of thumb" would 
then be arranged by the judgment, and the evils which are 
now left to accumulate until they grow so far as to require 
abatement as nuisances, would be guarded against, and life 
would flow more smoothly. Then we would not see so 
many groups on the corners of the Sixth Avenue waiting 
for cars only to see them pass filled to overflowing, and 
forced to walk two miles or lose the sight of the Exhibi- 
tion. 

INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITIONS OF EUROPE. 

When visiting the Exhibitions of Industry in Europe, 
some twenty years ago, I was much struck with the great 
difference between the products exhibited and those which 
our Fairs presented. The articles turned upon the luxuries 
of life chiefly, which, to be sure, were displayed in forms 
and qualities realizing the highest ideas of the beautiful. 
Since then, what a breaking out of the workshops and man- 



21 



ufactories has taken place ! The very catalogues of the 
London and Paris Exhibitions startle one. The spaces cov- 
ered seemed almost fabulous, and the demand for more — an 
absurd craving. The condition of opinion among manufac- 
turers and mechanics now-a-days and twenty years ago must 
be as different as that in resrard to national communications. 
Then, the traveller went to Liverpool and Manchester to 
pass between them on the only passenger railway in Great 
Britain. Now, the post-horse system is almost obsolete, and 
the steam-horse carries the traveller over the whole king- 
dom. Then Edinburgh was fifty hours from London, now 
it is hardly eleven. On the continent the only railroads 
were in Belgium, except a few miles from Leipsic towards 
Meissen. Then Yienna was two weeks from Paris, and 
now it is hardly more than two days. Then the workshops 
were almost inaccessible, as a rule, and the processes kept 
secret, but now they seek publicity both in their processes 
and products. While, in some parts of the Continent of 
Europe, things have been, in a great degree, stationary, 
within the last twenty years ; in others, railroads and tele- 
graphs have worked wonders. The establishment of the 
German Customs League (the Zoll Verein) has led to virtual 
free trade over a large portion of the Continent. The post- 
coach and diligence are now institutions of by-roads, or are 
decaying under stable-sheds or antiquated carriage-houses, 
and the spirit which has animated America and England, 
has spread to parts of the Continent. In the capital of 
France, wonders have been achieved. The Faubourg St. 
Antoine — that hotbed of crime, misery, and insurrection, 
and the terror of the peaceful quarters of Paris — has been 
rooted out. Houses lining a splendid street — brilliant with 



22 



lights, and beautiful with shops — take the place of those 
squalid dwellings of wretchedness and crime — the street 
stretching from the fountains and obelisk of the Place de 
la Concorde, to the spot where the Column of July marks 
the site of the old Bastile. Beautiful bridges of stone and 
iron span the Seine — huge airy markets of iron and glass 
take the place of the dingy structures of old times — facto- 
ries spread everywhere in constantly-increasing numbers, and 
everything betokens wealth and prosperity. True, the flow- 
ers grow on the crust of a volcano, but still they blossom, 
bloom, and shed their seed, replant themselves and multiply, 
not heeding the coming eruption. 

BABBAGE'S LIGHT-HOUSE SYSTEM. 

One of the most brilliant results of that World's Fair at 
London, was a book upon it by Charles Babbage, well known 
to Americans who have traveled, from his steady kindness, 
cordial hospitality, and hearty attention — well known to 
all, traveled or not, for his calculating engines and the 
wondrous resources of mechanical and mathematical genius 
which brought them forth. The finest principles of admin- 
istration are there laid down which I have seen embodied in 
language. Such principles as the administrative labors of 
Alexander Hamilton and Albert Grallatin (and I might add 
names of men yet living) would have served to illustrate, 
or as might have been obtained by induction from them. 
The principles which should regulate such exhibitions as 
that of the World's Fair are elaborated in the most forcible 
manner. 



23 



Among the chapters of that work is one devoted to Light- 
houses and their improvement, and containing the general 
principles and many details of a most admirable system for 
distinguishing lights, by causing them to show their num- 
bers by rapid eclipses and flashes of light. Any digit may 
be expressed by an equivalent number of occultations and 
restorations of the light : thus, one eclipse and one restoration 
would stand for the number one. The value of the digit, 
whether belonging to the units, tens, or hundreds' place, 
might be indicated by occultations preceded by shorter or 
longer intervals of light, as three occultations at intervals 
of a second would express three units, then a pause of sev- 
eral, say three seconds, then five occultations would express 
five in the ten's place, then a pause of say three seconds, and 
two occultations would express the hundreds, then a longer 
pause of say ten seconds, would show that the number was 
complete. Thus, the number of a light-house might be re- 
peated more than once in a minute, even where the figures 
are quite high, and each light-house would continue the 
repetition of its own number. Such lights can be seen at 
least as far as others which are not temporarily obscured ; 
and by arranging the numbers of the light-houses along a 
coast, upon such a system that the adjacent lights shall 
have very different numbers, the figures representing units, 
tens, and hundreds of the number not recurring in the adja- 
cent lights, the distinctions can practically be made very 
complete. For the world-wide purpose of its inventor, but 
three digits are required. 



24 



The mariner who approaches Sandy Hook, for example, 
would see constantly repeated number one, a flash for a sec- 
ond, darkness for three. Let his pulse beat ever so irreg- 
ularly from toil and anxiety, he could discern by it infal- 
libly, that the dark interval was three, the light, one — and 
thus that this was the cynosure to lead him to the haven 
where he would be. Nor could he mistake Fire Island 
Light for Sandy Hook — for it would signal twenty-two, first 
two, next two — but never one. 

Honor to the genius of this great inventor and phi- 
lanthropist ! How happy would we have been to wel- 
come him amongst us, to put the seal of his fame upon 
the details of the light-house system. We envy not to 
Europe the possession of such ability, but rather would 
seek to give it world-wide usefulness. Nor is this mere 
vain-glorious boasting, for the Executive Board under 
which the Light-house system is now placed, and at the 
head of which is the Secretary of the Treasury, invited 
Mr. Babbage here that he might mature and practically 
apply his great designs. 

Here memory brings back upon me a bright but mourn- 
ful recollection. Indulge me, that I cannot pass it by. 
Known to many in this community as a writer of pure and 
elevated mind, as a lecturer on themes of English poetry 
and history, as the devoted friend and admirer of Wadsworth, 
and perhaps his most successful delineator, he is not so gen- 
erally known as having had full and glorious sympathies 
with science and with scientific men. Henry Reed had a 



25 



mind and a head capable of embracing both, and if he loved 
literature more, he did not appreciate science less. He it 
was who, in conjunction with a young and zealous astrono- 
mer, (Dr. Grould,) almost shook the determination of Bab- 
bage to avoid or to defer visiting us. The melancholy loss 
of the accomplished envoy in the " Arctic," was a reason 
the more for the philosopher's decision not to cross the 
Atlantic. 

SYDENHAM PALACE. 

The removal of the great London Crystal Palace to Syd- 
enham, and its conversion into a receptacle for the perma- 
nent exhibition of the arts and sciences, constituted an epoch 
in our century. Here, upon an elevation overlooking the 
fertile plains of Kent, this palace of knowledge was perma- 
nently reared and dedicated to progress. Its grounds reck- 
oned in acres, their slopes and terraces laid out with con- 
summate skill in beautiful forms and in the contrasts of 
the gardens of Italy, France, and Britain, in the utilitarian 
representations of mines and of their working, and in the 
wonders of the earth, and of the great deep, in epochs 
antecedent to the creation of man. Its interior in ample 
development shows the physical geography of the globe : 
America, with her mighty lakes and rivers, her varied ve- 
getable and animal life. The plains of the African desert 
are found in place, and the boar, and tiger, and giraffe oc- 
cupy their characteristic haunts. The Chinese and Persian 
marts are displayed to the admiring gaze. Europe, in its 
Alpine grandeur and its English beauty — Europe, in its 



26 



arms and its arts. The visitor dwells for a moment in a 
hall of Egypt, surrounded by those sphynxes whose very 
expression excites such strange emotions in the soul — by 
those Caryatides, who bear so wearily the massive archi- 
tecture of the solemn temple. The light Grecian fane, with 
its gilded magnificence within, and its wealth of beauty 
in marble within and without ; — the Roman temple and the 
Roman dwelling — the Pompeiian house, recreated as by 
the touch of Bulwer's magic wand, its domestic life and 
its hospitality are there. The Alhambra is reproduced, with 
its Court of Lions ; the gorgeous mediaeval cathedral of the 
Continent is there, with its luxury of carving, and stained 
glass, and pictures, and relics. The English cathedral, with 
its tombs of warriors and ladies, statesmen and church- 
men ; the old English house, with its rush-strewed floor, 
and its dais and ample board above and below the salt, 
for gentle and for simple ; the collections of modern com- 
fort and luxury — of glass, china, carpets, tiling, carriages, 
of machinery, always in motion, and weaving the most del- 
icate as well as the commonest of fabrics. One passes vis- 
ibly in a day through all the progress of the world in its 
centuries, acquiring, through sight, definite and all-enduring 
ideas of times past, and their order nnd succession. En- 
closed under acres of glass roof, whose iron girders, colored 
by the hand of Owen James, seem like a fairy network 
against the sky, this building itself, one of the wonders of 
the world, gives the last, greatest idea of all — that, in 
this present time and place, such a wonder could be 
realized. 



AMERICAN EXHIBITIONS. 

What if the Mechanics of America of fifty years ago 
could awake to visit the halls of our Crystal Palace ! How 
would Robert Fulton, and John and Robert L. Stevens glow 
with enthusiasm as they saw those steam engines moving 
so noiselessly in their power, any one of which would have 
ensured the success of their early experiments. Oliver Evans 
would see that his ideas of the locomotive have been more 
than realized ; while a simplicity in mechanism, for which he 
ardently panted, had been fully attained. Rumsey and Fitch 
would see that the seed which they had planted was not 
wasted, but had yielded many hundred fold. 

It is certain from the repeated results of the Fairs at 
Boston, New- York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, that these 
exhibitions have been productive of good to the arts. Com- 
petition is developed in its most profitable forms. Secresy, 
the bane of mechanical improvement, becomes impossible. 
No great or marked advance in an art can escape recogni- 
tion, though doubtful cases may be decided erroneously. 
In the award of distinction the liberal policy is the wise 
one, and this has generally been followed by all these in- 
stitutions. 

FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 

The Franklin Institute has undertaken something for the 
progress of science, believing that the arts owe to science 
a debt over and above those which she has derived from 



28 



them. This is a debtor and creditor account which it 
would he difficult to adjust, even by the aid of an ac- 
countant and a master in chancery. Physical science would 
not have reached its present position without the facts 
which the arts furnish to build upon. On the contrary, 
how many applications flow from one scientific principle? 
How complex the action and reaction of fact and principle, 
of art and science ! The investigations by a committee of 
the Franklin Institute, of water as a moving power, have 
been pronounced by the highest living authority models of 
their kind. Those relating to the explosions of steam boil- 
ers actually so far exhausted the subject, that no consider- 
able additions have been made to our knowledge in regard 
to it for the last twenty years, and public information is 
not even now up to the level of the results then deduced. 
The production within a boiler of hydrogen gas, and its 
subsequent mysterious explosion, still finds its way into print, 
while the dogma that a steady increase of steam pressure 
cannot produce violent explosions, has yet its advocates. 
But, in general, these things are now better understood ; and 
the searing iron has been so effectively applied by this Her- 
cules to many of the heads of the hydra ignorance, that they 
have not again sprouted. 

The hot and unsaturated steam within a boiler not prop- 
erly supplied with water, is no longer believed to be the cause 
why, when water is injected suddenly, the boiler explodes; 
and on the contrary, the heated metal is now known to 
be the source of danger — danger from its own weakness — 
danger from the strength of steam which it suddenly sup- 
plies. 



29 



In taking up the subject of Weights and Measures, the 
Franklin Institute did a good service to the State. Happy 
if it had enforced further attention on the public to the great 
reform needed. 

The promotion of the increase of knowledge is one of the 
highest functions of such an Institute. To it the Franklin 
Institute has added the publication of a Journal by which 
to diffuse knowledge, a publication sustained now so long, 
that we have a ri^ht to consider it as one of the established 
works of our time, a permanent mark of the usefulness of 
mechanic associations. 

How eminently these things contributed to the mutual im- 
provement of the members who earnestly engaged in this 
work, — the work thus twice blessing, the giver and the re- 
ceiver ! How it served to develop the power of those men 
of strong minds and willinsr heads and hearts ! 

Shadows gather around me as I speak — the mechanics of 
Philadelphia of thirty years ago, those then in their prime, 
now grey — the seniors gone to their rest. Worthy succes- 
sors of Evans and Perkins, and Lyon and Ramage. Ron- 
aldson and Lukens, Reeves and Tyler, and Patterson, worthy 
to be the scientific teacher of such men. Cautious but gen- 
erous Ronaldson, always laboring in the cause of humanity 
and progress ; skillful and ingenious Lukens : acute and la- 
borious Reeves, equally able in devising experiments and 
mechanism, and in using them ; philosophic Tyler hammer- 
ing out iron heated by a fire of iron fuel to prove a princi- 
ple, and puzzling the scholastics with the theory of the 
top. 



30 



I am not aware that other institutions have followed 
in the wake of the Franklin Institute, nor does that in- 
stitution appear to have found it expedient or necessary 
to continue in this course. The men who at one period 
could devote much time to such researches, are now so 
greatly in demand that they cannot give their time to 
this good work. What if any one should have whispered, 
while thus employed for the public good gratuitously — 
they were laying up for themselves, for the future, a store 
of good things ! Young men, be not too careful to see an 
immediate return for your exertions. Be not too careful to 
pursue a selfish end by selfish means. Give way to the 
generous impulses of your heart, and labor in love ! 

Do such institutions as these form any part of a Uni- 
versity of the Arts ? 

GOVERNMENT WORKS. 

I have not time to notice here the doings of our go- 
vernment directly or indirectly, in aid of Science, the 
Coast Survey, the Patent Office, the Nautical Almanac, 
the National Observatory, the Ordnance and Engineer 
departments, the Surgeon (xeneral's department, the To- 
pographical Bureau, the recent expeditions of Perry, 
Page, Ringgold, Rogers, and Berryman, nor the institu- 
tion founded by the munificence of Smithson, nor those 
Arctic expeditions, chiefly set afloat by a generous-hearted, 
progress-loving merchant of New- York. All these bring, 
in their place and degree, renown to the country. I have 
sometimes thought that if they could be directed by an 



31 



Academy of Sciences, so as to prevent occasional misdi- 
rection and jostling, they would contribute better to the 
great end which all have in view ; but perhaps indepen- 
dent action and rivalry are, after all, the best for them, since 
the tendency of government works is usually towards inac- 
tivity. Indirectly connected as they now are with the sci- 
ence of the country, a wholesome stimulus is found in sci- 
entific opinion. That this is exercised leniently, even to a 
fault, must be admitted; and our men of science are awak- 
ing to this conclusion and to a knowledge of the mischief 
which it has done to the progress of true science in the 
United States. Generosity is the right side to err upon, 
but it may be carried too far. 

FREE PASSAGES FROM EUROPE. 

At a recent meeting of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, free passages frum Europe, 
and return passages to Europe, were freely offered by the 
Collins, the Cunard, the Belgian, Glasgow, and Bremen 
steam-ship lines, for such distingaished foreigners as might 
be invited by the Association to attend their meeting ; 
and the additional passages offered by the owners of the 
lines of sailing packets were so numerous, that it might 
be well said there was no limit to the hospitality which, 
through their intervention, might be extended to the Sa- 
vans of the old world ! How admirably such deeds il- 
lustrate the character of our merchant princes, and how 
they speak to the old world of the warm-hearted liberality 
and regard for learning in the new ! On the circular of 
the American Institute are the names of thirty railroads 
and steam navigation companies which have patronized 



32 



this exhibition of the arts, by undertaking to pass guods 
intended for it over their roads at half freight. Nor is 
this liberality confined to the State of New- York, but ex- 
tends through nearly all New-England ! The liberal soul 
deviseth liberal things, and commerce and the arts tend 
to liberalize the mind. 

COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATIONS. , 

"While the mechanics and manufacturers have found 
rallying points in the American and Mechanics' Institute, 
the merchants have made their organization felt for the 
advancement of the great and general interests of com- 
merce, through the Chamber of Commerce. 

The want which it represents is — united effort in move- 
ment upon objects affecting the interests of commerce and 
navigation. It is a peculiarity of these associations that 
they have no costly buildings appropriated to their action. 
This is emphatically true of the Chamber of Commerce, 
which assembles in various places, and at somewhat irreg- 
ular times ; truly utilitarian in this respect, that it comes 
together whenever there is something to be done, and de- 
pends upon the wisdom of its council rather than the sanc- 
tity of the place from whence it may emanate. 

The union of views of practical usefulness, and an en- 
larged spirit of inquiry, characterized the proceedings of 
the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New- York from 
its earliest organization, in 1768. 

Questions in regard to currency and the value of gold 
and silver coins claimed its attention as early as 1769, 



33 



and in the minutes of proceedings for November of that 

year, is recorded the reply of the astronomer, Rittenhouse, 

and John Montresor, to the request of President Cruger 

for a determination of the latitude of the Battery. 

t 

This eminent body seems to have wielded almost legis- 
lative influence in moulding the commercial character of 
the past generation. In 1786, scarcely more than two 
years after the evacuation of this city by the British forces, 
the Chamber expressed its high idea of the proposal of 
one of its members for connecting the city with the great 
Lakes by a line of water navigation — concluding with the 
statement, that as a single corporation, its funds, of course, 
were not adequate to the undertaking ! Can we wonder 
that from such beginnings, and with such lineage as that 
traceable in its subsequent history, the enterprise of this 
metropolis should reach to such a Himalayan height ? 

Previous to 1806, action had been taken in the Cham- 
ber, on three several occasions, for regulating the system of 
pilotage, and measures were instituted to remedy the com- 
plaints to which the system then in use had given rise. 
Quarantine laws, which had some years before been dis- 
cussed, in 1822 again became a subject of deliberation, 
with other matters not less vital to the public interests. 

In 1828 the Chamber responded favorably to a request 
from the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, for its co- 
operation in inducing Congress to construct the Delaware 
Breakwater. 



34 



After repeated action on the subject of pilotage, the 
Chamber, in 1837, represented the grievances arising there- 
from, by a committee sent to Albany for that purpose. 

Questions concerning wharfage claimed the attention of 
that body in 1840, and its committee then made the im- 
portant suggestion that the piers and wharves of the city 
should be subjected, if practicable, to a uniform system 
of rules and regulations. What difficulties and dangers to 
the commercial interests of the city might have been 
avoided, had this suggestion been adopted at that day ? 

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY. 

Favorable consideration was given in 1845 to a proposal 
from Columbia College for the establishment of an Ob- 
servatory near this city, the Chairman of the Committee 
to whom the matter was referred, reporting it: " as an 
object well worthy of the consideration of the Chamber, 
alike for its utility to the commercial interests of the city, 
and for the maintainance of its character as an advocate 
for the cause of science." 

It is interesting to observe how public opinion grows by 
action from one individual, or one locality upon another. 
The project of an Observatory has been dwelt upon, ex- 
plained and enforced, until many minds are imbued with it ; 
and the question is not — should there be an Observatory — 
but rather ivhere, and on what scale shall, the most efficient 
one be established. From one small beginning at Philadel- 
phia, this fire has spread to Cincinnati, "Washington, Cam- 
bridge, and Tuscaloosa. Beams more or less bright, seem 



35 



to flow from the capital of your own State, aurora-like, 
high towards the empyrean. A devoted wife has given 
the name of her husband to immortality, while the sun 
and moon shall endure ! The Dudley Observatory wants 
but moderate aid to place itself in the front rank of such 
establishments, to enable it to fulfil its duties to science 
and to society, the first by the study of the stars, the 
second by furnishing time to commerce and navigation — 
time to travel, time to society. Accurate time to the 
navigator is an essential, — accurate time to the railroad 
traveller is his life — accurate time to the man of business 
is money. How pleasant to pass down Broadway and find 
ten minutes difference of longitude, equivalent to two de- 
grees and a half, or some hundred and seventy miles be- 
tween Union Square and Wall-street, with half of it be- 
tween the City Hall and Trinity Church ! Time signals 
by telegraph and clocks, regulated by electrical currents 
controlled at the Observatory, will put a period to all these 
irregularities. They deserve encouragement as life-saving, 
time-saving, and money-saving inventions. 

A memorial was adopted in 1851, for co-operating with 
the citizens of North Carolina, in efforts for opening a 
good inlet into Albermarle Sound ; and the scope and spirit 
of the Chamber are well illustrated in its stating, as the 
ground of interposition on that occasion, " that the work 
proposed is one calculated to benefit the commerce and 
shipping interests of the whole country, and thus is a 
national object." 



36 



HARBOR ENCROACHMENTS. 

In the very same year, well-conceived measures were 
taken by the body, to stay the encroachments on the 
channels of the East and North Rivers, and in the follow- 
ing year the Chamber warmly seconded the recommen- 
dation for a permanent Light-House Board. 

The process by which in all our cities we go on in- 
creasing the land area, by diminishing that of the water, 
is worthy of more than a passing examination. To ob- 
tain deep water, we extend from the natural bank a 
pier or wharf, until it reathes the required depth. The 
current which once passed by the bank, now passes by 
the end of the pier, and gradually the space be- 
tween the bank and the pier is filled up with silt and 
mud, there being no longer a current to keep the material 
suspended, or to carry it onward. Soon the line of shoal 
water is pushed out, until it is nearly as far beyond the 
end of the wharf, as it was formerly from the bank. The 
pier is again built out, the shoal goes on in advance, and 
thus there is a struggle between art, directed by injudi- 
cious means, and the powers of nature, which can have 
but one result. Two such piers inclose a space which, 
by becoming shoal, is no longer useful as water, but 
being filled up becomes valuable as land. Meanwhile the 
East River is diminished to two-thirds of its original 
width, and but for the timely interference of the State 
Legislature, prompted by public opinion, the commercial 
prosperity of the city might have been seriously affected. 



37 



V< it is, the danger of the removal of the great marts of 
commerce to neighboring localities in or out of the State, 
does not seem to be sufficiently appreciated. Diminish 
the facilities for commerce here, and it will infallibly 
seek them elsewhere. 

The great advantages of docks and warehouses have 
been frequently pointed out, and yet the recommendations 
of the State Commissioners on harbor encroachments, and 
their advisory scientific counsel, are thus far unheeded, and 
property owners are determined to interfere by filling up 
instead of by excavating, by piers and wharves instead of 
by docks and basins, by stores in streets, instead of ware- 
houses on piers. This must drive the dock system to 
Brooklyn, to Growanus bay, to Hoboken, and to Jersey 
City, if the same spirit does not also fill the water spaces 
there, and carry the docks down to the flats below Jersey 
City, making in the future new cities arise better adapted in 
their arrangements to the wants of the commerce of the 
times. The laws on this subject are as inflexible as any 
other natural laws. You may as soon expect, like the 
French politician, to withdraw your balloon from the 
action of srravitation as to evade those laws. 

Manhattan Island was intended by nature as the site 
of a great commercial city. The channel of the Hudson, 
directed from the New- Jersey shore and towards that of 
New- York, makes the great city front. Turn it to the 
New-Jersey shore, and commerce will be turned with it. 
Aid nature by multiplying facilities here, and commerce will 
take a long lease of your piers, and basins, and ware- 
houses. 



38 



While these subjects interest the whole community, 
they have formed the special study of but a few. It is 
our characteristic to let an evil grow until it becomes in- 
tolerable, and then to act. The present Board of Com- 
missioners on Harbor Encroachments have found diffi- 
culties at every step, growing out of the late day at 
which the movement resulting in their appointment was 
made. Thirty years ago it would have been easy to have 
fixed a proper pier line for New- York, but public opinion 
was not alive to its necessity. Let us at least be wise 
for the future, and insist that there shall be special per- 
sons to keep these things in view, and to enlighten the 
public mind ; to suggest public action in regard to them, 
and to restrain individual cupidity when it would inter- 
fere with the general welfare. There is no other safety 
for the future of the metropolis. Private interest surely 
cannot prevail in shaking off the wholesome restraint of 
a commission whose only interest is the public good. 

NEW-YORK HARBOR. 

What a scene of beauty New- York harbor presents on 
a sunny morning of the Indian summer, when the purple 
colored haze hansfs over the water and land, lending to the 
landscape those beautiful tints for which the Bay of Naples 
is so famous. There is hardly a breath of wind, and the 
sluggish sail scarce gives impulse to the vessel. What 
forms of beauty those innumerable floating objects present, 
the dark hulls and white sails contrasting strongly through 
the gorgeous air tint which covers both. They seem less 
the instruments of commerce than the creations of fairy 



39 



land. In the midst covering the water with purple foam 
are those giants in strength, with the bodies of pigmies, 
the tow boats, moving with impatient snortings like Nep- 
tune's sea horses, and carrying by their power immense 
forms with masts, and spars, and rigging, looming in 
huge, uncertainly high through the misty glow of this 
quiet, breezeless, roseate air. It seems almost a pity to 
destroy so beautiful a scene by the utilitarian appliances 
of commerce ; but the mariner frets as the sails flap, and 
invokes the aid of steam to take him from the enchanted 
port — the sea-breeze rises, the sunlight glows, the illusion 
vanishes, the ships move, and the beautiful passes into the 
useful. 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

At a recent meeting the Chamber of Commerce has 
taken up the subject of Weights and Measures. As this 
important matter, striking deep into the interest of society, 
is now agitated both in the Chamber of Commerce and in 
the Geographical Society of this city, I would observe, 
that a great and simple reform would be to insist upon 
one iv eight and one measure — to adopt one unit of 
weight, one unit of length measure, and one unit of ca- 
pacity measure, for both liquid and dry measures. There 
can be but little doubt that some day that there will be 
a nearly universal system of weights, measures, and coins 
in use. The world will not bear the useless labor and 
waste of time caused by the present diversities, and as 
communication grows more easy, this burthen will become 
intolerable. Sinbad, the Sailor, will not continue to carry 
this old man of the land upon his shoulders. 



40 



In view of this, if it is desirable to postpone any radi- 
cal changes, the least that should be done is to reform our 
weights and measures, so that we shall use only one unit 
of weight, the troy or avoirdupois pound ; one unit of 
length measure the yard or foot ; one unit of capacity 
measure, the gallon or bushel, and that these shall be de- 
cimally divided. 

The United States Government has, with a view to pro- 
duce practical uniformity, distributed to all the States 
actual standards of weights and measures, and has multi- 
plied them by sending also to the Custom Houses. These, 
by legislation in most of the States, (twenty-five out of the 
thirty-one) are adopted as the only lawful standards of 
weights and measures. 

AN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY. 

We have now looked into the little nook of our exhibi- 
tion, throwing a more or less distinct light upon the pro- 
ducts, trying to show the outlines of the schools, acade- 
mies, and colleges, and the faint shadows of the Universi- 
ties, using as many gas burners as our supply would per- 
mit, in considering the institutions for improvement of me- 
chanics, and the mechanic arts, and for progress in science, in 
commerce, and in the arts. It is not an exhibition of 
"all institutions," so we will be pardoned that so few are 
represented, and that we have taken them rather as they 
came to us, than as if we had sought them, and asked 
them to send their products for exhibition. That we have 
taken those nearest home, rather than sought far and 



41 



wide for more appropriate materials — that we have stuck 
upon the minor pegs our notice of Europe as it was and 
is, and a leaf from the volume of its industrial and me- 
chanical development, and from the history of our own 
progress in the arts and sciences. In a side nook is a fa- 
vorite collection of models and drawings, representing in 
fragments and in coarse outline, a much needed institution 
still unreared, to he based upon the schools, colleges, and 
the Mechanics' Institutes — to be built by the exertions of 
mechanics, of the merchants and the scholars — an institu- 
tion for the more effective promotion of knowledge among 
its members, for the advancement of the branches of know- 
ledge themselves, — in the most comprehensive sense of the 
words — a University of the Arts and Sciences. 

If language was taught upon the natural philosophic 
principles so ably and plainly laid down by Professor 
Roemer, there would be no difficulty in recognizing it as 
a science, and no violence would be done in thus classing 
it. " "We should proceed from facts to principles, and then 
from principles down to consequences ; we should begin 
with analysis and end with synthesis." Is not this sci- 
ence? The sentence is from Professor Roemer's Essay on 
the Study of Languages. 



ORIGIN OF UNIVERSITIES. 

The Universities of the Old World, if they did not 
spring chiefly from the wants of the professions, at least 
in their systematic organization had direct reference to 



42 



the technical preparation for one or more, or all of them. 
Universities are traced by some historical writers back to 
the time of the Roman Empire, and by others to the 
schools of the Arabians. The fact is, professional educa- 
tion in theology, jurisprudence and medicine, and some- 
times astronomy or astrology, as it was in those days, was 
engrafted upon various stems constituting the institutions 
which, in the middle ages, most resembled the modern 
Universities. Before the invention of printing, oral in- 
struction was of course of greater relative consequence 
than after, and the University of Bologna numbered ten 
thousand pupils. After the invention of printing, (says 
Libri,) the professors had fewer attendants upon their lec- 
tures, but their instruction reached further. As extremes 
meet, events moving in a circle, so in those times as in those 
latter days, travelling was a great source of information, 
but the distances we should count as but travel about 
one's room. The same professors were employed in several 
institutions lecturing as itinerants, which we now deem a 
practicable feature for modern improvement, the scale of 
distance being, however, vastly enlarged. A professor's 
certificate of study occupied the position of the more 
modern degree, which dates only from the twelfth century. 
Instruction was, in the Italian Universities, gratuitous from 
the thirteenth century. The democratic element (using 
the words in their largest acceptation) was strong in these 
institutions, for one of the luminaries in the Paris Univer- 
sity was the son of a washerwoman. The privileges of 
Professors and Students, their exemption from arbitrary 
rule and from party changes, united in one brotherhood 
the friends of knowledge and of liberty. 



43 



L E Y D E N . 



In Holland the Prince of Orange, as a reward to the 
citizens of Leyden for the bravery which they displayed 
during the siege of the town by the Spaniards in 1773-74, 
gave them the choice of exemption from certain taxes, or 
a University. To their credit they chose the latter, set- 
ting at that early day the example (if a penny saved is a 
penny earned) of encountering taxation for a public educa- 
tion. The reputation of this establishment was at one 
time so high, that it was called the " Athens of the 
West." The great physicist, Des Cartes, and the critic, 
Scaliger, the jurist, Grrotius, and the physician, Boer- 
haave, were among the professors and scholars ; and 
Goldsmith and Evelyn, and other distinguished English- 
men studied there. It is divided into four Departments : 
Law, Theology, Medicine, and Philosophy, and has twenty 
Professors. It is an example of a University without 
buildings except for Museums and Lecture Rooms, its 
Professors living in private houses, and its Students in 
lodgings. It has an observatory, an anatomical theatre, 
and a museum, a botanic garden, a chemical laboratory, 
and a natural history museum, founded on the basis of the 
products of Japan. 

UNITED STATES. 

Many distinct movements have been made in various 
parts of the United States towards the establishment of 
an American University. I will not pretend to enumerate 



44 



them. While there is, of course, considerable diversity of 
opinion as to what such an institution should be, — whether 
the National Government should be invoked, the State 
Government, or private munificence, or whether it should 
be self-supporting — and endless modifications of these ; the 
want is admitted, of an institution, supplementary to our 
colleges, where young men can be carried onward beyond 
a college course in literature and science, where our 
young merchants, and mechanics, and teachers may find 
incentives and means of progress — a great University of 
the arts and sciences, in which the practical man may 
meet on equal terms with the scholar. Whether it shall 
give professional education like the institutions of the same 
name in the old world is a matter not organic ; the great 
field must be, that unoccupied by our colleges, and it 
must be tilled to suit American soil and climate. The 
circumstances of society here are peculiar, and the organ- 
ization must be adapted to them. The object is not to 
supersede existing institutions, but to establish one supple- 
mentary to them. The number of young men now sent 
abroad to attend courses of chemistry, mineralogy and 
geology, mining and metallurgy, to study civil engineer- 
ing, to perfect their knowledge of ancient and modern 
languages, would of themselves make a respectable number 
of pupils for a University. 

i 

In the words of a distinguished man of science who 

has devoted much thought to this subject, ;; The best 
plan for founding a University is that which concentrates 
the interests of the largest community, and combines the 
greatest variety of intellect, with the smallest pecuniary 



45 



outlay and the least provocation of opposition. The most 
feasible plan is that which is most elastic, and which 
may he the smallest in its germ, while it is most com- 
prehensive in its full development. Its professors must 
he the ablest men in their respective departments ; it 
must be connected with a fine library, a well equipped 
observatory, and complete collections and laboratories for 
the elucidation, illustration and investigation of every spe- 
cies of knowledge. But it is expedient that the library, 
the observatory, the cabinets, and the laboratories should 
be under the especial control and fostering care of their 
respective boards of administration, whose local residence 
and peculiar habits of mind should adapt them to these 
duties. The general board of overseers should unite all 
that is necessary to command the universal confidence of 
the country, and their principal duty should be to secure, 
by consultation with the professors, the ablest body of 

officers." 

i 

The development of this scheme contains as a cardinal 
principle the establishment of Professorships or Lectureships, 
the remuneration for each of which shall not exceed one 
thousand dollars' a year, so that an income of forty thou- 
sand dollars would secure forty courses of lectures, several 
by the same Professor, or all by different ones, as might 
be determined upon. These Professorships to be vacated 
every five years, and to require no residence at the Uni- 
versity, unless where the same Professor is called upon for 
several courses, in which case he would constitute one 
of the governing heads of the University. Each Professor 
to be required to deliver a course of at least twelve lectures 



46 



during the year. The foundation of such Professorships 
(to take the name of the founders,) would be within the 
reach of moderate means. The Professors in the various 
colleges of the country would lecture in the University, 
deriving additional income by so doing, and improvement 
from association with their colleagues of the University. 
The institution can be organized step by step as Profes- 
sorships are established, and be developed in the direction 
found by experiment to be most advantageous. 

It may be supposed that these Professorships are analo- 
gous to the fellowships in the Universities of England ; 
but this is hardly so. The Professors will be lecturers to 
diffuse the sciences which they cultivate, bound to certain 
duties of instruction, and not enjoying that literary ease 
without much stimulus, which the fellowship procures. If 
they give several courses, their time may be too much 
engrossed by active duties, and the other horn of the 
dilemma be the one upon which they will be impaled. 
Both are easily avoided. They must have time to culti- 
vate science, for the University should hold this to be one 
of its cardinal objects. 

Referring to the union of the practical man and theo- 
retical man in this University of the Arts, I beg to be 
allowed a remark. Few terms have been more abused 
than this one of a practical man. It is often used to 
denote one who works by empirical processes instead of 
by scientific. Empiricism is the lowest form of knowl- 
edge. Science generalizes, and the scientific mechanic, 
instead of looking for separate solutions for every problem, 



47 



solves many from one principle. The one gropes as in 
the dark, the other advances boldly as in the light. Super- 
ficial theory runs into quackery, and is deserving of all con- 
tempt, but the deeper the study the more practical it be- 
comes. When theory is complete it is always practical ; and 
when it seems not so to be, the absence of this turn may 
be traced to some defect in the theory. It is easier to work 
down than up ; first to know what the generalizations of 
ages have done for us — then to improve upon them if we 
can. The applications of such principles are far easier 
than their elaboration. The highest principles of science, 
such as were elaborated by Oersted, and Ampere, and 
Henry, and Grauss, were required for the application of gal- 
vanic electricity to the art of tel egraphing. With these are 
associated the highest grades of mechanism, such as the 
inventions of House and Farmar. The calculating and print- 
ing machines of Babbage are at once an illustration of the 
union of the two highest theoretical and practical powers. 
The attempt to sever science and art is mischievous, and in 
this our time and country will prove abortive. Each is 
essential to the life and activity of the other. 

In organizing such a University, we must consider first the 
branches of knowledge which should be taught, secure the 
men available for them, and then make a classification of 
the whole scheme according to a scientific principle. We 
might first draw up a project in which all the branches de- 
sirable were interwoven, next consider what men we have 
to fill the chairs, and how the branches must be divided 
among them. These two considerations would act and react 
upon each other as far as a practicable scheme was con- 



48 



cerned, and the distribution of the subjects would, after 
they were determined upon, be an easy task. Consulting 
a number of scientific friends, I find that courses of litera- 
ture, science, and arts, could easily be extended to sixty in 
number without assigning any unimportant subject. That 
these might occupy twenty to forty lectures, and that the 
least beginning of a respectable sort would be by twenty 
subjects and ten or fifteen instructors. All the details, how- 
ever, would be much better left to the organization of the 
Chancellor and first faculty. After a careful examination 
of the schools of Europe, some twenty years ago, I saw 
abundant reason to conclude that an institution might have 
ever so good a plan upon paper and yet not be successful, 
and that a moderately good plan well administered might be 
better than an excellent one carried out by inferior ability. 
I would therefore counsel as high a flight as possible in look- 
ing for the Professors, especially the first professors of the 
institution, and a liberal concession to their views in organ- 
izing and developing the new-born establishment. 

With the facilities for travel in our country, the professors 
of our Colleges could readily take part in University instruc- 
tion without impairing their usefulness at home. Agassiz 
lectured in Harvard and in the medical college of Charles- 
ton. The most active minds in the Faculties would thus 
be brought together in one institution, and they would return 
to their regular posts with all the glow which inter-commu- 
nion of rich minds is sure to produce to react upon the col- 
lege and themselves. Thus the requisite number of lectu- 
rers could readily be found, and thus the elite of our school- 
men and men of science could be brought into regular com- 
munication with each other. 



49 



The first principle in the selection of the Professors should 
be that they were capable of advancing the boundaries of 
their scienc s, and not only capable but diligent in so doing 
up to the limits of their capacities. 

It is no doubt true, that many profound thinkers are our 
good teachers ; but where they are, there is a living spirit 
imparted by their teaching, which penetrates the mind of the 
neophyte and kindles the flame upon the altar of truth with- 
in. It is the highest kind of teaching. A Chancellor of 
the University who knew how to use men and their gifts, 
would easily so arrange matters, that by supplementary Pro- 
fessors or by assistants any defect in the teaching of the chief 
Professor would be made good. In fact, so fairly do scientific 
men, as a rule, estimate each other, that volunteers would 
readily be found to serve under the leading spirits in research, 
to spare their time and exertion, and to occupy the rostrum 
in their behalf. This is not Utopian. 

AWARD OF SCIENTIFIC REPUTATION. 

I have often of late years been brought into contact with 
two different classes of minds, the one which, seeing the 
brotherly affection of many scientific men for each other, 
feels and says that American scientists are members of a 
mutual admiration society ; the other, seeing the occasional 
earnest differences of opinion rising sometimes into the re- 
gions of temper, sneeringly says, How quarrelsome philoso- 
phers are ! The truth, I suppose, lies between — that the 
philosophers are men, have the hearts of men to feel and 
love, and the tempers of men, showing themselves in occa- 

4 



50 



sional outbursts of volcanic trap, through the horizontal lay- 
ers of the quietly deposited sand-stone. In regard to the award 
of reputation which such men make to each other, it should 
be considered as final and conclusive. It is founded on knowl- 
edge as on a rock. Notoriety among these men does not pass 
for reputation, for one may be personally known to all the cul- 
tivators of science in the country, and yet be rated low in 
mental power. Those of the same pursuits fathom first and 
most truly the minds of each other, then those of diverse 
pursuits, the circle of judgment wave-like decreasing in 
height and sharpness as it expands. The outer world of in- 
telligence is hardly reached by these waves at all ; and as 
well might the scientific man undertake to award reputation 
in law learning or acumen to the jurist, or in medical skill 
and power to the physician, or in mercantile knowledge and 
judgment to the merchant, as to have his place fixed by these 
instead of his scientific peers. " Ne sutor ultra crepidam" — 
" I love a quotation which is not hackneyed." 

"While upon this subject of the award of reputation, I wish 
to be permitted to say a few words about the carelessness 
with which American doings are too often treated abroad, 
chiefly to establish the proposition that in science and liter- 
ature, as in other things, we should rather seek the judg- 
ment of our countrymen than that of foreigners, and that 
we should endeavor to establish a more wholesome public 
opinion upon this subject, struggling for an American repu- 
tation derived from our peers, as, in Europe, a European rep- 
utation is derived. The public generally would be more 
amused than edified if I went into a chapter of facts within 
my own knowledge, upon the mode sometimes adopted for 



51 



attempting to secure a European reputation. The congrat- 
ulations upon the receipt of a medal from a foreign potentate 
— which required an act of Congress to be permitted to ac- 
cept, and which I know to be due to the amiable character 
of his representative, through social intercourse had with 
him — seemed to me like those ironical cheers of hear ! hear ! 
hear ! by which the English opposition benches greet a min- 
ister's speech for the crown. 

Few books for the times have been written which gave 
to their authors greater immediate national reputation than 
Robert Walsh's Appeal of 1819. It was a warm and glow- 
ing appeal from the injustice of Great Britain in reference 
to America and American institutions. As far as the science 
of the two countries are concerned, I should say that a differ- 
ent feeling exists now ; that if there are icy remains of a 
once bad understanding and selfish professional jealousies, 
they are fast disappearing before the warmth of personal 
acquaintance, rising even to the genial glow of friendship. 

I wish I could so speak for the Continent, and especially 
for France. Since the wane of that great light of the French 
Academy, Arago, American scientists have had much to com- 
plain of. Since its final earthly eclipse they have more. 
The official publications of the doings of our real men of 
science are either overlooked entirely, disregarded, or named 
to be treated with disrespect. This, too, from those who 
once professed to be amongst the most devoted of the admir- 
ers of Arago, and, under his lead, to cultivate friendships 
which might almost be termed sentimental, with our savans. 
11 Write to me," said one of these distinguished men to one 



52 



of our friends, "at the equinoxes, and I will answer at the 
solstices." "I wrote," said the American, " at the equi- 
noxes, but the solstices have never come." True, there are 
cases of exception, which, according to the law maxim, prove 
the rule. Not to indulge in generalities, I state, after full 
examination, that the methods recently advanced by Le Ver- 
rier, a man who of many, has no need to slight the claims 
of others, for determining differences of longitude by the tel- 
egraph, are but the reproduction of those used in the Coast 
Survey of the United States for now these eight years — the 
fruits of the labors and studies of Walker and Loomis, Grould 
and others. Neither the method of coincidences which he 
lauds, nor that of signalizing the transits of stars, which 
he considers of the highest merit, are new, but have been 
practised for years, and have been published over and over 
in official reports, and in the proceedings of recognized 
scientific bodies, and constitute in part, what may properly 
be called the American method of telegraphic longitudes. 
The Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, in a far different 
spirit, has given to the automatic register of astronomical 
observations by the galvanic circuit, the title which gener- 
ously recognizes our claims, and assigns the origin to the 
United States — in the title of American method of observa- 
tion. 

A lesser light, too, of the Old World, Wichmann, of Kon- 
igsberg, has just published an article on the difference of 
longitude by telegraph, stimulated by that of Le Yerrier, 
and containing an outline of his mode of proceeding, which 
might almost serve as a history of the olden time method of 
the coast survev. 



53 



Better things than this were to be expected from a Grerman 
physicist. They, of all Europeans, have, in former days, 
been sore under the infliction of the egotism or neglect of 
the French physicists; and I remember well the unction 
with which the story was told me by one of these men 
who read all languages, that when Becquerel was reproached 
with his neglect of German electricians in his work on 
electricity, he exclaimed, with a nonchalance considered typ- 
ical of the Academy, " Must one know all languages to write 
a book ?" 

MUS EUMS. 

Around the American University of Science, Literature, 
and the Arts, would cluster scientific, historical, and art col- 
lections of every sort : Museums, libraries, galleries of the 
mechanic arts, and of the fine arts. Our museums of Natu- 
ral History, even though most prized for their scientific value, 
have grown up under the views which prevailed in past time, 
and are adapted to a past state of the science. They have 
been modified and enlarged, it is true, to endeavor to bring 
them up with the science of the day, but the plan or idea 
upon which they are based still shows itself. They are col- 
lections of specimens showing the diversities and not the 
analogies of nature. Separate museums of comparative 
anatomy took their rise from the researches of Cuvier and 
his followers. So the progress of geology gave rise to muse- 
ums of fossils. So also the discoveries of Agassiz in embry- 
ology will produce museums devoted to this branch. But 
these are fragmentary establishments. A master of the sub- 
ject has said : " What we now need is a museum in which the 



54 



various relations that link together different groups of animals 
shall he exhibited at a glance, where the anatomical prepara- 
tions illustrating their structure shall be placed side by side 
with perfect specimens showing their external forms ; where 
the remains of extinct forms shall fill the gaps existing be- 
tween the living, and where specimens of the embryos shall 
illustrate the succession of changes all these types undergo, 
and the correspondence between the development and the 
successive appearance of the representatives of past ages." 

If the isolated efforts of those devoted to cultivation of 
science in our day could be brought into combination, 
such a museum could readily be produced, and the coun- 
try in which such is first established will take the lead 
in the future progress of natural history. What an in- 
centive to American exertion, to lead in such a race ! 
Will not private munificence come forward to render such 
a thing possible ? 

Already a beginning has been made at Harvard of a 
great collection, a fragment of this scheme ; — but some- 
thing much larger in the way of effort is necessary to 
realize the want of the time. 

There exists in the country no extensive museum of 
materials and products of the arts, and manufactures, and 
of machines. In Vienna, imperial munificence has en- 
dowed such an establishment, and it has been growing 
from year to year, but is still deficient in the full de- 
velopment of the plan. The Conservatory of Arts and 
Trades of Paris was an admirable beginning of such a 
museum. You pass through series of models of machines, 



55 



from the merest beginnings to the perfection of the present 
day, — from the rude pumping engine of Savery to the per- 
fect marine steam engine, — from the egg watch of Nurem- 
burg to the modern chronometer. Our government is doing 
something towards such a record of daily improvements, 
by preserving the models of the Patent Office, and the 
present enlightened Commissioner is using his efforts to 
give space for their display. 

The Franklin Institute had a collection derived from the 
voluntary contributions of depositors at the annual exhibi- 
tions. 

A great collection, such as the best minds connected 
with the arts of our country could organize, should be 
gathered by a University, and be the means of teaching 
the youth, and improving the mature man in knowledge, 
of the national progress of the world, and the present con- 
dition of its workshops. Taking the exhibition of Syden- 
ham Palace as a basis, we should rear upon it a super- 
structure adapted to the wants of the United States. 

THE COOPER UNION. 

The stranger visiting New-York, and admiring its struc- 
tures raised by public and private munificence for public 
uses, sees inscribed in bold relief on one of them — To Arts 
and Science — Union. Yes, joined in the designs of the 
Founder of all art and science, they are not in this earthly 
temple divided. Without science the arts have flourished 
as handicrafts ; with science, they have risen to control 
powers of the earth and beyond the earth. Tubal Cain, 



56 



toiling as he fashioned his copper spear-head in the smithy 
fire, and Henry Burden, as he lightly touched the spring 
which furnished steam to mould, and "bend, and twist the 
iron horse-shoe, were types of these two conditions. The 
printing press of Franklin's time, toilfully bringing out 
its two hundred and fifty sheets per hour, and the great 
self-acting presses of 1856, inking and printing, cutting 
and folding their twenty thousand papers with railroad 
speed, represent these brought into closer compass of time. 

How many facts was it not necessary to have established, 
compared and reduced to principles, before the steps from 
one of these conditions to the other could be taken? And 
is not science the generalization of facts? Many men use 
science as Moliere's Bourgeois Grentilhomme used prose — 
without knowing it. 

The mechanic of the present day is well idealized in 
the figure designed by Crawford, and selected by Captain 
Meigs to adorn the pediment of the National Capitol — not 
the mere handicraft workman, however skilful, with brawny 
arms and ready fingers, but the intellectual workman, with 
broad expanse of forehead, and face lighted with the fire 
of thought, the intellectual mechanic of the Nineteenth 
Century. 

If, with the princely endowment of the "Union of Peter 
Cooper, separate lectureships upon the plan proposed by 
Professor Pierce were founded, what a splendid branch of 
the great Art University would not this constitute ! Re- 
serving enough of the forty thousand dollars of income to 



57 



meet contingent expenses and to provide for a Chancellor, 
and perhaps certain resident Professors, there would re- 
main enough to furnish thirty courses of lectures upon as 
many different branches of science. By giving to one Pro- 
fessor several of these, his whole time might be retained 
for the Union. 

The highest grade of science would thus be brought into 
the class-rooms of this establishment, the name of which, 
and the well-known views of its modest founder, point to this 
arrangement as the one adapted to its organization. 



THE ASTOR LIBRARY. 

An earlier, yet still recent example of the spirit which 
satisfies itself with nothing less than views of public use- 
fulness on the amplest scale, is seen in the establishment 
and endowment of the Astor Library of this city. Percep- 
tion in regard to public necessity may be said to be intuitive. 
Mr. Astor seems to have acted upon the promptings of his 
own mind, in founding the noble institution which so aptly 
bears his name. " It is," says a writer in the United States 
Magazine, " a first experiment of throwing open a library 
in a great city to any one and every one without any for- 
mality of admission or any restriction whatever, except as 
to age." "When it is remembered that this is not a mere 
accumulation of eighty thousand volumes, but so many, 
most of which have been selected with special reference to 
the want of which suggested the idea of collecting them, it 
seems difficult to assign limits to the benefits so conferred 
upon a practical people. " The first purchase for the libra- 



58 



ry," says Dr. Cogswell, the present learned superintendent, 
"was made March 15th, 1839, and amongst the volumes 
bought were Brittaiu's Architectural Antiquities of Great 
Britain, Young's Recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphic Litera- 
ture, "White's Gradations in Man, and Churchill's Voyages. 
These were the nucleus of the Astor Library, and may fairly 
be considered as a type of the whole collection." 

The donation in 1853, by William B. Astor, Esq., " for the 
establishment of a department to be called the Industrial 
Library," continues the magnificent design. What a splen- 
did collection of books is here at hand for the use of the stu- 
dents and Professors of the University ! 

UNION OF INSTITUTIONS. 

With such institutions as the Cooper Union, and the As- 
tor Library, and the Dudley Observatory, a beginning of the 
great American University of Arts and Sciences seems al- 
ready made. The museums of materials, products and ma- 
chinery, of the arts and manufactures, and of agricultural 
products and machines, of Natural History in all its branches, 
and the galleries of art, are yet to be founded and grouped 
in systematic order around it. 

This University, like the genius in the Arabian Nights, 
released by the fisherman from his confinement in the vase, 
will, from a shadowy smoke, take substantial form, increas- 
ing as the country grows, and filling the measure of its 
greatness. Unlike the relieved genius, it will be the min- 
ister of good, instead of evil, and will have the seal of Solo- 



59 



mon set, not upon the case containing its shriveled frame 
and shrunk members, but to its grand and noble figure and 
to its towering and magnificent proportions. Under its shade 
the Arts and Sciences will flourish. In its halls the practical 
and theoretical will meet in cordial union, while among its 
Professors and Alumni will be the lights of progress in our 
country. It will be the intellectual temple over whose front 
will be inscribed, Dedicated to Science, Literature, and the 
Arts. 

Here, men of progress, scholars, practical men, mechan- 
ics, merchants, artists, will meet to study the works of 
men, and, better still, the works of Grod — this temple itself 
but the vestibule of that more glorious structure dedicated 
to His Word. 

Holy men of old studied the works of Grod, and their 
glowing references to them fill the pages of Holy "Writ. 
The Psalmist invokes them by name to praise Grod. Praise 
him, all ye angels ; praise him, all ye hosts ; praise him, 
sun and moon ; praise him, all ye stars and light ; praise 
him, all ye heavens, and ye waters that are under the 
heavens; let them praise the name of the Lord, — for 
He spake the word and they were made, He commanded 
and they were created. He made them fast forever and 
ever ; He hath given them a law which shall not be 
broken. 

The spiritual world, — Grod's hosts, and the material world, 
— including all space, — creation and law. Sublime concep- 
tion ! 



60 



What Grod hath joined together let no man put asunder. 
Let. mutual love penetrate the hearts of those who study 
the works and the Word of G-od. By Him they were both 
given, — by Him we were made capable of their study. 
Both are, in fact, His Works. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
II llll 



001 766 677 



